New Delhi, April 5: BJP president Rajnath Singh today said that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is "presently India's most popular leader and there are no two opinions about it."
Replying to questions in Rajat Sharma's Aap Ki Adalat on India TV, Singh said: "Nobody can overlook this truth about Modi being India's most popular leader at this moment."
Singh praised Modi as the only BJP chief minister who performed a hattrick of victories in Gujarat.
"He (Modi) has brought the development model of Gujarat before the world. Just because of one communal riot, he is being villified. There had been so many communal riots during the rule of Congress chief ministers, but nobody talks about them."
Singh however said that the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP will be decided by the Central Parliamentary Board.
"I can't bypass the party's system. It's the central parliamentary board which decides who will be the prime ministerial candidate. Even my personal opinion alone won't matter", said Singh.
Singh rejected media reports about infighting in the BJP over whom to project as prime ministerial candidate.
"Even when Atalji and Advaniji were there, they never hankered after posts. Had it been some other party, the party would have been vertically divided. BJP is India's only political party which was never vertically divided, unlike the Congress or the Communist Party."
On corruption issue, when asked why Nitin Gadkari was made to quit, Rajnath Singh said, "Gadkari was never forced to quit. Rather, he insisted on resigning because of constant attacks from political opponents. I personally told him he should not resign and the entire party would stand behind him, but he decided to quit."
Singh pointed out that no chargesheet has so far been filed against Gadkari over the charges of corruption that were levelled against him in the media. "This is the election year. We never told the Congress not to file the chargesheet. Then what's holding them from taking action."
